Luckily, he's gotten used to being in the xpen. He's got his little pillow in there and just kinda acts like it's his new throne. He sleeps a good portion of the day which is how it was before his back was injured!

He's lost weight, that's good but the bad part is we were all expecting him to gain!
I hope we can maintain him at this weight. Apparently the prednisone can make dogs lose muscle mass too. It's so confusing.

I just noticed this post, but I'm glad to see that Copper is making progress, minus the huge hit to your wallet that surgery would've been.

If you haven't already, you may want to search on yahoo groups for Dodger's List, which is geared towards dachshunds who've gone down in the back. They can give you a ton of info on keeping him from reinjuring himself, and how best to deal with it if he does, as many have been through it with at least one dog.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about his weight loss, as leaner is better for dachshunds, especially those with a history of disk problems. I keep mine (who, knock on wood, hasn't had any problems yet) lean enough to see at least the last couple ribs, and trimmed her down even further when she was having some slight lameness in her rear end a few months ago after running her ball too hard. She's been up as high as 13 lbs without looking fat, but I like to keep her around 10 lbs, and her vet agrees that it's better to keep her lean like she is (though I do get some "skinny dog" comments).

Thanks!! I love your little doxie Is she a mini?
I think Copper's one of those petstore type "tweenies" myself, he has the head of a mini but is probably about 12 lbs or 13 at a healthy weight. Oh well. We love him all the same

Technically a mini (at least that's what she was registered as, my aunt bought her from a petstore as well), though at normal AKC show dachs weight she'd fall into the tweenie range.

I was thinking about this earlier , and also wanted to add that if he's drinking a lot on top of the weight loss, you might take him in to have bloodwork ran, as I know corticosteroids can induce diabetes like symptoms.

You also might ask your vet about supplements to help him out after he's done the meds and crate rest, I know ester C, fish oil, and glucosamine/chondroitin are all common ones for people to use, though I don't have enough experience to know exactly what each does or how much to use. I also know some who've had good luck with hyrdotherapy after their dogs have had disk issues, and it would definitely help with rebuidling muscle mass if the vet clears him for it.

gooeydog wrote:Technically a mini (at least that's what she was registered as, my aunt bought her from a petstore as well), though at normal AKC show dachs weight she'd fall into the tweenie range.

I was thinking about this earlier , and also wanted to add that if he's drinking a lot on top of the weight loss, you might take him in to have bloodwork ran, as I know corticosteroids can induce diabetes like symptoms.

You also might ask your vet about supplements to help him out after he's done the meds and crate rest, I know ester C, fish oil, and glucosamine/chondroitin are all common ones for people to use, though I don't have enough experience to know exactly what each does or how much to use. I also know some who've had good luck with hyrdotherapy after their dogs have had disk issues, and it would definitely help with rebuidling muscle mass if the vet clears him for it.

Yeah I'm weaining him off the prednisone. He got very FOOD aggressive on it, it's still doing that to him. I was down to 2.5mg. every other day and I'm just going to stop, I think. the vet recommended quitting because of that. I don't know why, but it's one of the side effects (weird huh??) I am using the glucosamine/chondroitin, and giving him regular C, what is the difference between that and Ester C? Also I give him a B complex, I don't know why but it's safe and I take them too Fish oil, I have to buy more of. He's looking very nice on the salmon oil, I just ran out.
Hydrotherapy, I'd like to try, I think he could do it now, since he never lost feeling in his legs and didn't lose bowel/bladder control. If he tolerates it OK and doesn't freak out I'll do it with him. He usually gets very frightened at the river but maybe a bath wouldn't be so scary! Plus we have a little life jacket for him which may help!